How TikTok and Its relationship with narcissism and bandwagon effect influenced conspicuous consumption among Gen Y and Gen Z

. This research aims to investigate the influence of TikTok, as one of the most widely used social media, and its relationship with narcissism and bandwagon effect on conspicuous consumption among Gen Y or Millennials and Gen Z. Although the impact of social media usage, such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube; on conspicuous consumption is well known, little was known whether TikTok, which emphasizes on short videos with various filters and massive music library, has similar impact. The relationships between TikTok and narcissism as well as bandwagon effect that are associated with conspicuous consumption is also little discussed in research. The data for this research are collected through an online survey from 107 Indonesian Gen Y and Gen Z respondents that regularly use TikTok. The result shows that TikTok usage positively affects conspicuous consumption, and that bandwagon effect positively mediates TikTok usage and conspicuous consumption. It also shows that narcissism negatively mediates TikTok usage and conspicuous consumption. This research proves that TikTok, especially among younger generations, is important for luxury brand strategies as it gives a positive impact to the bandwagon effect among users, thus adding to the urge to buy luxury products.


Introduction
The luxury brands global market was predicted to grow from USD 316.16 billion in 2019 to USD 352.84 billion returning to pre-pandemic market demand and growth levels [1].The luxury goods included watches, jewellery, perfumes, cosmetics, clothing, bags, and purses among others.Bain & Company [2] showed that online sales of luxury brands increased by 50% in 2020 and 27% by 2021 or nearly doubled since 2019 due to the pandemic.However, their growth was seeing normalization in 2022, while retail stores still dominated [3].The report also showed that Gen Y and Gen Z were responsible for the entire luxury brand market growth in 2022.This indicated that conspicuous consumption was growing, and younger generations played important roles in it.
According to Statista [4], the number of social media users worldwide was predicted to reach almost 6 billion people by 2027.Although social media usage, such as Facebook and Instagram, positively impacted conspicuous online consumption [5], there were few research on whether TikTok usage had the same impact too.Among various social media platforms, TikTok was the most downloaded app in the world in 2021 [6].In Indonesia alone, more than 92 million Indonesians aged 18 and above used TikTok as of 2022 with penetration rate of 47.6% [7].Gen Y or Millennials showed extraordinary enthusiasm toward consuming, creating, and sharing short videos on TikTok [8], while more than 60% of TikTok users were Gen Z [9].Based on these facts, TikTok quickly turned into the most used social media platform for younger generations.This confirmed the need to examine whether TikTok influenced consumption, especially the conspicuous driven one, among Gen Y and Gen Z.
Based on the research by Neave et.al [10], narcissistic consumers engaged in conspicuous consumption.Narcissists were also more engaging in TikTok, such as creating short videos, giving likes, commenting, and following others [11].After exploring literatures regarding TikTok usage and conspicuous consumption, there were few research projects that connected between TikTok usage, narcissism, and conspicuous consumption.
Another important phenomenon emerging from the use of social media was the bandwagon effect [12].Tynan et al. [13] suggested that the bandwagon effect influenced luxury brands costumers, thus influencing conspicuous consumption.Like the case in the previous paragraph, there were few research projects that connected between TikTok usage, bandwagon effect, and conspicuous consumption.
To bridge the above-mentioned gaps, this research was designed to analyse a model of the underlying associations concerning TikTok usage, narcissism, bandwagon effect, and conspicuous consumption among Gen Y and Gen Z.

TikTok usage and conspicuous consumption
TikTok was a widely used social media app that let its users created, watched, and shared 15-second mobile videos [14].It was a platform that allowed users to express themselves creatively [15].It differentiated itself from other giant social media platforms, such as: Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram by focusing on short videos [16].TikTok was currently the sixth most monthly active users according to Statista with around 1 billion monthly active users [4].
Gesmundo et al. [8] noted that a great number of consumers exposed themselves on social media by communicating with each other about their purchase experiences.That was the reason marketers increased their focus on digital marketing channels [17].They used video-sharing platforms as one of the social media advertising and marketing tools to promote their products [18].Luxury brands also received positive perceptions from video-based social media like YouTube [19].TikTok, with its short video focus and growing number of already huge active users, could be considered as a social media platform for marketing campaigns [8].
The consumption of luxury products was usually associated with conspicuous consumption [20].This research used the definition of conspicuous consumption as a behaviour in which somebody bought a luxury product or service to publicly display economic power [21].
This research attempts to confirm that TikTok, like many other social media platforms, also influences conspicuous consumption.The hypothesis based on the presented research findings and arguments is: H1. TikTok usage will positively affect conspicuous consumption.

Narcissism
Narcissism was a common personality trait where individuals had a high level of egocentrism and positive perceptions about themselves that were not in line with actual situation [22].Neave et al. [10] separated between nonpathological narcissism as consumer character and pathological narcissism as a personality disorder.This research focused on narcissism that was related to consumer character.
Social media usage, such as Facebook and Twitter, was believed to fuel the rise in narcissism [23].A study by Taylor [24] showed that as social media usage increased, the level of narcissism increased too.It did not conclude whether social media usage was the cause of increasing narcissism level though.Most research, however, addressed social media as a display of narcissism to receive attention, instead of social media as a catalyst towards increasing narcissism [25].
Narcissistic consumers and conspicuous consumption were related because those customers were self-focused and have showy behaviour [26].
Narcissistic consumers expressed a preference for luxury over ordinary products [27].There were two subtypes of narcissists: grandiose narcissists, who were exhibitionistic, self-assured, and aggressive; and vulnerable narcissists, who were introvert, anxious, and defenceless [28].However, a study by Neave et al. [10] showed that both subtypes positively predicted conspicuous consumption.
The hypotheses based on the abovementioned arguments are: H2. TikTok usage will positively affect narcissism.H3.Narcissism will positively affect conspicuous consumption.

Bandwagon effect
Bandwagon effect could be defined as the desire to join the crowd by buying, wearing, and using products that were used by others [29].The effect could be explained from the behaviour of consumers that imitated consumption and display of brands from people with higher social status [30].Bandwagon effect was therefore an aggregate consumption behaviour that was born from and dependent on others as well as directed to similar bandwagoners [31].
A study by Boto-Garcia and Baños-Pino [32] enabled us to conclude that social media users continuously interacted with acquaintances as well as strangers and learn about others' consumptions.The bandwagon effect through social media usage exerted an influence on purchase intention [33].It came as no surprise that luxury brands use social media as advertising and marketing tool as explained in the previous section.
The hypotheses based on the abovementioned arguments are: H4. TikTok usage will positively impact bandwagon effect.
H5. Bandwagon effect will positively impact conspicuous consumption.

Operationalized variables
Table 1 shows the list of operationalized variables that were used to design questionnaires to answer the previously defined hypotheses.

Data collection
Data were collected through an online survey with the target population of around 92 million TikTok users that lived in Indonesia [7].Based on the research purpose, a study population was drawn from the population of TikTok users that were born between 1981-1996 (Gen Y) and 1997-2005 (Gen Z with minimum age of 17 years old).
Previous study showed that Gen Y showed high intention to buy luxury fashion products and were urged to do conspicuous consumptions [36].Cho et al. [37] stated that Gen Z had become an important target market for luxury fashion brands.The sampling frame for this research, therefore, focused on respondents who were interested in luxury fashion products.The product could be apparel, accessories, handbags, shoes, watches, jewellery, and perfume.
This research used random sampling technique based on age groups, which consisted of Gen Y and Gen Z.The survey for the research was done in online form using Bahasa Indonesia.A valid respondent must be aged between 17 and 42 years old based on birth year to finish the survey.The target number of valid samples or respondents was one hundred.A five-point Likert scale ranging from 1: 'Strongly disagree' to 5: 'Strongly agree' was used as the measurement tools of the survey.

Demographic profile of respondents
In total, 107 respondents, which were TikTok users born between 1981 and 2005, finished the survey.Table 2 shows the demographic profile of the respondents.
Gen Y was represented by 57% of the respondents, while 43% of them represented Gen Z.The proportion of Gen Y was expected to be bigger than Gen Z because the survey allowed the whole age range for Gen Y (born between 1981 and 1996), but only 17 years old and above for Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2005).
Gender proportion was 54% male and 46% female.This was aligned with the gender proportion of the Gen Y and Gen Z population, which was 51% male and 49% female [38].Most of the respondents were graduates or undergraduates (67%), followed by high school graduates (23%) and masters or postgraduates (10%).Therefore, the total percentage of respondents that were undergraduates or above is 77%.This met the research expectation because higher educated respondents more likely had higher income [39] to consume conspicuously.
round 47% of respondents had an average screen time between 30 and 90 minutes for every TikTok usage, 38% of them had screen time less than 30 minutes for every TikTok usage, and 15% of them had screen time more than 90 minutes for every TikTok usage.This meant that 53% of the respondents spend more than 30 minutes every time they use TikTok.This was in line with the 52 minutes of daily average time spent on TikTok [40].

Indicators
Table 3 shows the mean and standard deviation for each indicator represented by the questions in the survey.Almost all indicators had their five-point Likert scale means between 2.4 and 3.5, except indicator C3 with average 1.925 meaning that most respondents were strongly disagree or disagree.All indicators had their standard deviations between 1.1 and 1.4.

Reliability and validity
This research used SmartPLS version 4.0.8.9 to analyse the responses from the respondents.Based on the collected data, the latent variables or constructs and the indicators from the questionnaire were tested for their reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity.
Table 4 shows that all constructs were reliable (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994).The reliability was also confirmed by composite reliability (CR).CR scores for all constructs were also above 0.70 [41].
The table also shows that convergent validity was adequate because all average variance extracted (AVE) scores for the constructs were above 0.50 [42].
Table 5 shows that outer loadings matrix of all indicators against their latent variables.Most of the values were above 0.70, which indicated a good indicator reliability [43] except for indicators N3, C1, and C3 that had values between 0.60 and 0.70.However, if those indicators were excluded, the composite reliability and AVE did not improve, so they were still included in the model because they were above 0.40 [43].
Table 6 shows the heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT) as the result of discriminant analysis between the constructs.According to Henseler et al. [44], the ratio below 0.90 indicated a discriminant validity existed between two constructs.All ratios were below 0.90, except for the ratio between construct C (conspicuous consumption) and B (bandwagon effect).This indicated that the indicators between those constructs were correlated.However, considering that all other ratios between constructs were good, and the reliability and the convergent validity results were also good, this research continued the analysis using the original constructs and indicators.

Path coefficients
Table 7 shows the path coefficients as well as the pvalues of each relationship between the latent variables.
All p-values were below 0.05 or statistically significant.This indicates that all relationships between latent variables were statistically significant.There was a directly positive impact of TikTok usage on conspicuous consumption.There were also positive impacts of TikTok usage on narcissism and bandwagon effect.However, narcissism negatively impacted conspicuous consumption while bandwagon effect positively impacted on conspicuous consumption.It meant that all hypotheses were accepted, except for H3 because narcissism negatively affected conspicuous consumption.

Discussion
This research aimed to reveal the relationships between TikTok usage, narcissism, bandwagon effect, and conspicuous consumption.First, the research explored whether TikTok usage positively affected conspicuous consumption.Second, whether TikTok usage positively affected narcissism.Third, whether narcissism positively affected conspicuous consumption.Fourth, whether TikTok usage positively affected bandwagon effect.And fifth, whether bandwagon effect positively affected conspicuous consumption.The result showed that all of the relationships were accepted, except that narcissism negatively affected conspicuous consumption.

Theoretical implications
The research suggested the first hypothesis that TikTok usage would positively affect conspicuous consumption.The result confirmed that TikTok usage positively impacted conspicuous consumption for Gen Y and Gen Z.This finding demonstrates that TikTok is also like other social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, that positively impact conspicuous consumption [5].
The second hypothesis stated that TikTok usage would positively affect narcissism.The result showed that the hypothesis was accepted.This finding adds another information to the debate whether social media usage is a catalyst for narcissism or social media as a platform to display narcissism [25].
However, an unexpected result showed that narcissism negatively influenced conspicuous consumption, thus hypothesis three was rejected.This finding contradicts previous research that showed narcissistic consumers were self-focused and had showy behaviour [26] and that they expressed a preference for luxury over ordinary products [27].As mentioned previously, one of the indicators for conspicuous consumption ('I like to show off luxury brands purchase on TikTok') had a low mean compared to other indicators.This meant that most respondents disagree or strongly disagree with the indicator, which was closely related with showy behaviour of narcissism.Based on this, the research argues that narcissism negatively mediates TikTok usage and conspicuous consumption for Gen Y and Gen Z because the luxury brand purchase itself is not meant to be showed-off in TikTok.
The fourth hypothesis stated that TikTok usage would positively affect conspicuous consumption.The result met expectations, as TikTok usage positively impacted bandwagon effect as Gen Y and Gen Z continuously interacted with friends and strangers and learn about others' consumptions [32].
The last hypothesis stated that bandwagon would also positively affect conspicuous consumption, The result confirmed that the bandwagon effect from social media usage influenced purchase intention [33].This finding shows that TikTok usage increases bandwagon effect that influences Gen Y and Gen Z to consume conspicuously.

Managerial implications
Based on the survey result, luxury brand managers should consider TikTok as a social media platform to promote their products.The result confirmed the previous research that TikTok could be considered as a social media platform for marketing campaigns [8].It was also one of the most popular social media platforms or applications among Gen Y and Gen Z [7].They also had become the most important generations in terms of spending power [3].
Luxury brand managers should focus on creating bandwagon effect because the study showed that it would increase positive impact of TikTok usage on conspicuous consumption among Gen Y and Gen Z. Influencers and famous users with a lot of followers in TikTok can be seriously considered to maximize the bandwagon effect.

Limitations and recommendations for future research
This research finds out some limitations that should be considered for future research.First, the limited number of valid respondents may cause some outer loadings to be lower than 0.70 as the acceptance level.Second, the simplified indicators for narcissism may also influence the negative relationship between narcissism and conspicuous consumption.Third, the indicators of bandwagon effect and conspicuous consumption have low discriminant validity.
Some recommendations for future research to improve the research model: bigger number of valid respondents, usage of a more thorough indicators such as NPI-16 [45] for narcissism as a latent variable, research for more indicators that can improve the discriminant validity between bandwagon effect and conspicuous consumption.

Conclusion
This research fulfilled its purpose to investigate the influence of TikTok and its relationship with narcissism and bandwagon effect on conspicuous consumption among Gen Y and Gen Z.It showed that TikTok usage positively affected conspicuous consumption, and its effect was amplified by bandwagon effect as the mediator.It also showed that narcissism significantly, albeit negatively, mediated TikTok usage and conspicuous consumption.

Fig. 1
Fig. 1 shows the research model based on the defined hypotheses.

Table 2 .
Demographic profile of respondents.

Table 4 .
Construct reliability and convergent validity.

Table 7 .
Path coefficients for the research model.